Hello All

I had a discussion recently with an experienced beekeeper on the subject of
swarm control. He told me that he uses the following system to obtain
evidence of the existence of queen cells without having to open the brood
chamber.

He takes the roof off the hive, removes the inner cover a little until he
can see the bees. Then if he sees many bees standing in rows like soldiers
with their snouts pointing upwards this tells him that there are queen cells
in that hive.

If on the other hand the bees are ambling around rather aimlessly (at least
to us), then it can be taken that there are no queen cells in that hive.

He claims that he has used this system for 30 years and finds it dependable.
He did say that in the beginning that he checked the brood chamber and found
that the pointing bees always betrayed the existence of queen cells.

Has anybody used this type of system and as always comments very welcome?

Sincerely

Tom Barrett
Dublin
Ireland